Is J.D. Salinger about to lose a case trying to protect his most famous creation?
For years Salinger has prevented anyone from what he feels is exploiting in any way his "Catcher in the Rye."
He has consistently rebuffed Hollywood–including Steven Spielberg–where many have wanted to make a movie or TV show based on "Catcher in the Rye" and its famous protagonist, Holden Caulfield.
Salinger’s never been shy about going to court to protect his work. Most recently he won a lower court case preventing the U.S. publication of a book by a Swedish author called "60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye."
Representatives for the Swedish author appealed that ruling, and yesterday, Sept. 3rd, a three judge panel for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case, according to Reuters.
And the judges wondered aloud whether Salinger would really be harmed if the Swedish book was published here in America.
The most telling comment reflecting today’s society–and the most chilling one, depending upon where you sit on these questions of copyright–was this one:
"The fact is, that anybody can just go on the Internet and get the London edition," said Judge Guido Calabresi, questioning whether the Internet has affected claims of copyright damage to authors and created "a never-never land."
–Chuck Ross
this is weird because salingr’s book is only about a kid leaving a school and getting a prostitute its pretty stupid with a lot of cussing and calling people phony
How does Salinger eat from day to day? Royalties from the book enough to fill his fridge after all these years? Surely he would’ve cleaned up with a couple of cool million from Spielberg or some such mogul, no? I mean, if you had a best-selling book, wouldn’t you want to see it as movie, and get paid beaucoup money for it as well. What is his problem?